Digging a ditch

[Kratos]

I am a new tractor owner (25 HP Jinma) and have 9 acres in Washington that I am trying to tame. So far, I have a brush hog, a chipper, and a post hole digger and am clearing and fencing slowly. The problem I am planning to attack come spring is the run off flooding.

There is a run off creek that enters my property on one corner during the rainy season, runs under two culverts on driveway and road down to the barn, then out the opposite corner. Right now, it overflows and floods half of my land during our continual heavy rains in winter.

I want to deepen and widen its path to contain this run off and keep the land from flooding over. I have been told that it is a bad idea to try to do this job with my front loader lest I tear it up. Not a lot of money to work with, but am considering either a rear scoop or a box blade to gradually do this job.

Any suggestions? Do I need to save my money and buy both? Or should I hire a backhoe and operator and not try to use my tractor as an excavator?

 

[MrJimi]

I was just picturing your situation, Is there any chance of you getting stuck in the wet ground?

 

[RoyJackson]

Rent the backhoe

 

[John_Mc]

You may need more of a drainage swale than a ditch. I used my boxblade to make mine, and resorted to the FEL in a few places (the toothbar on my FEL helped a lot for that). I thought the boxblade was a good tool for the job... but on the other hand, that's the tool I already had, so of course that's what I used.

I may have been suffering from that old syndrome: "When the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail." Since putting in the swale, I bought a backhoe, but I'm still thinking I'd use the boxblade in the future. I guess it depends in part on how deep you need to go. I wanted to go wide and shallow, so I could drive right through it when I needed to get to the other side.

The ultimate tool would probably be to rent an excavator with a wide bucket.

 

[SPaulsen]

I would go down to your local rental and rent one of their tractors that has a backhoe attached. In Washington, they are about $250 a day. You can dig a lot of trench for one day's rental. Just my 2 cents worth. Your loader and or box scraper would not do the job to your liking...

 

[Timber]

I have found very little I can not do with the Loader and the tooth bar if that is what you have. This is the beginning of my pond project. I don't understand using your loader for what is was designed for damaging, Oh maybe they meant the paint job. A tooth bar will cost about $200 or so

 

[bigballer]

i've seen a middle buster used to make a shallow ditch (but not very wide either), i am considering this $150 attachment for similar work (need to tame the runoff). i also considered renting a mini-ex and still might if the mb doesn't work out.

what part of wa are you in? i am near monroe.

 

[Kratos]

I live just north of Aberdeen and about 15 miles in from the coast. I had an excavator guy out here today looking at my property and making recommendations. He came highly recommended by a couple of people I know.

My land is still heavily treed with some clearings I have made. My wife likes the trees, but it seems like wasted land that I am paying taxes on. Anyway, he said that to clear about 5 acres of trees, pull the stumps, bury what he can, burn the rest, and dig a small pond would cost 15-20 k. He said that his estimate is that I have 15-20k worth of timber to sell. So, best case scenario, I can have all of the work with the pond and drainage ditch dug for a wash for the trees. Worst case scenario, it will cost me 5k when I am done.

If I win over the wife and get it done, I will then plant grass seed and brush hog and box blade and fence when he is done and have the pasture with pond that I want. It might be the best way to go to have an excavator do the rough, heavy lifting and I do the fine tuning with my tractor.

 

[CurlyDave]

He said that his estimate is that I have 15-20k worth of timber to sell.

The state or county should have a forester who will look over your land and timber free and estimate its worth. A lot of people have been burned by selling way too cheap.

 

[KentT]

He said that his estimate is that I have 15-20k worth of timber to sell.

The state or county should have a forester who will look over your land and timber free and estimate its worth. A lot of people have been burned by selling way too cheap.

Yep. And make sure to determine that the evaluation you get is the "on the stump" value, the "delivered to the mill" value, or the "value of the lumber." Those numbers will be dramatically different.

Just to give you an idea, I ended up agreeing to sell the trees on my my lot when I cleared it for 1/2 the sale price of the lumber that came out of them. The logger/sawyer got the other 1/2 for cutting, hauling and sawing them.

That did not deal with the cost of dealing with the stumps or slash. To make a long story short, the timber essentially paid for the clearing and grinding of the stumps and slash -- and no more. I still had to pay for the needed culvert, road-building, etc.